Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Health, Physiology, Gender, Class, Psychology

    'Exercise is necessary, but the constitution of women is adapted only to moderate exercise [...]. Excessive labour reduces and deforms the organs, destroying by repeated compressions that cellular substance which contributes to the beauty of their contours and their colours'. Observes that the best kind of exercise for 'women of a middling condition' is that found in 'useful and indispensable occupations'. Argues against walking on the grounds that it only involves the lower parts of the body, rendering the course of the humours 'irregular and their distribution unequal'. Considers the dangers of the thoughts that come to the mind during a walk, whether 'extravagant' or relating to the exercise itself. 'Baglivi said, that by thinking too much about digestion, it is impossible to digest at all. The same observation may be applied to the other vital or animal functions; we disturb them by thinking incessantly of them'. The best exercise is 'actual labour', especially when it maintains 'a just equilibrium between the mental and physical powers'.